The present invention relates to brushes and particularly to brushes with flexible bristles, that is, bristles that flex along their longitudinal axis.
In conventional brush construction, bristles are anchored at their lower tips in a brush base. When scrubbing pressure is applied to the upper tips, the bristles tend to deflect off their axis with consequent loss of scrubbing effectiveness. To compensate, bristles are made stiffer for maintaining scrubbing effectiveness. Stiff bristles are suitable for flat surfaces and when the surface is convex only a portion of the bristles in the overall brush length make contact with the surface. In the case of a toothbrush, bristle contact occurs at the high points of teeth contour and the intermediate recesses or hollows remain unbrushed.
There is need for a brush with bristles that flex longitudinally, that is, undergo an effective or virtual decrease in the height of the bristle, so that the brush over its entire length of bristles remains in contact with curved surfaces such as a toothbrush for brushing teeth.